This week's monster is based on drawing I created last year for Illustration Friday of the Goblin on War pig (can be seen in my portfolio). I wanted to draw a companion piece for the brown paper drawing for my sketch book I'm printing for convention season. The weekend provided time to design, draw, and ink the piece and I added color in the early afternoon today. This character spot isn't for a project but an exploration to a fantasy setting in the African savanna.
Since I have been showing many final drawings as well as digital pieces, it's time to show my main tools for sketching.
Sketchbooks are the most important record of my thoughts at a given time. I've had a sketchbooks since I was 11 and never stopped carrying one around with me where ever I go. My current sketchbook is the large yellow one, I stopped using the brown paper sketchbook since I couldn't find a low enough price for my budget. I spent about 8 bucks on the yellow sketchbook. With cheap paper, you don't have to worry about making awesome drawings and just experiment. Last week, I bought a moleskine, sometimes carrying my large book is an annoyance so I often carry it in a bag when I leave the house. The moleskine is nice because its a good size to carry around. The paper is thin but it has a lot of paper so I'll get my moneys worth in it.
Some pages from my Moleskine.
Next are my supplies I use to draw in my sketchbooks with.
I like to sketch in pen, it makes me learn to place confident lines on the paper, plus I have a record of everything I draw since there's no erasing. The pens on the left are 2 Pentel Finto in black and red, the other pen is a sharpie pen. The pentel's are very similar to sharpies but move better across the paper (tip: use on thick paper only, it will bleed through very thin paper). The 2 pens I use the most are ballpoint pens of red and black. The red pen is for laying down the under drawing and the black is for cleaning the sketch up and adding details. To the right are the 2 pencils I use when sketching final pieces. The larger blue pencil with the metal is a Pro-Matic, it holds a stick of graphite and it's great for gesturing a large piece. Since I leave a flat tip, it keeps me from getting ahead of myself with detail. The other pencil is a basic mechanical pencil and a trusty easer near by.
For inking I use FW Ink, I haven't found any other ink that lives up to FW's standard. I ink my pieces with Burnt Umber to give the drawings a warmer line. The white ink is FW as well and I use to for my toned paper pieces, it's great because it won't warp the paper because there's no water added. My favorite brush to ink with is Blick Studio Synthetic 0, I've experimented with many brushes over the years and can't find a brush I enjoy more then the Blick brush. Each brush has a color tape at the end to remind me which one is for white ink and what's for the umber ink.
That's it for my drawing supplies, later on I might do a post about my favorite paper to use in the creation of illustrations.
Spent Saturday night sitting in my favorite chair sketching and this troll appeared on the paper. He isn't for any project I'm working on but more as a relaxing drawing because is a contained idea so I don't have to think of how it will 'fit' in a world I'm building. But this troll is not for nothing, he may appear in my sketchbook I'm producing for convention season. The book is 32 pages, magazine size and going to be professionally printed. I've created about 22 pages so far and am liking the way the book is turning out. If there are any left over books from conventions in April, I'll have them available online for purchase.
With a (kind of) snow day, I got the day off from selling arts and crafts supplies to stay home and get real work done on illustrations. There have been a few digital pieces sitting on my desktop for a while and deciding to finish some today. Here's the finished Halfling rogue piece I previewed on my tumblr a while back.
Alton The Blue Ghost is an enigma in Orbis. Some say he is a folk hero helping to bring down tyrants, other's say he is a common thief, and some believe he's a creation of people's imagination. Known for his great stealth, Alton hides in the shadows of the cities spying on politicians. Waiting for the best time to strike them down and uses his size to his advantage when hiding indoors. He steals their valuables, wether it be documents or gold. His weapon of choice is his short sword that he uses with deadly force, beating some of of the best guards gold can buy. Landing his face on many wanted posters around the kingdoms of Orbis. Because of Alton's action he has been named The Blue Ghost, killing out of the darkness and only seeing the color of his cloak as he escapes. Alton's adventures have become stories of Legends in Orbis and are told over the lands.
It's been 1 year of Monster Mondays. I only missed two Mondays is a whole year (i think) and plan to draw a monster for every Monday of 2014. It's been a great exercise in character design and well as holding accountability to create and post drawings. A lot of the drawings are going to be published in my 32 page full color sketchbook I'm printing for convention season as well as some never before seen monsters and illustrations.
As celebration for a full year of Monster Mondays I drew a portrait of a tree folk. I have drawn many tree folk in the past year and can't help that they are a joy to draw. There is something about looking at a tree that creates strange anatomy. There are tree folk in Orbis but I haven't decided if they travel or are planted to the ground or both. And like Goblin Guild, I will be creating a small book of just tree folk for convention season and finish my book of wizards. Lots to get done for April (MoCCA Fest, Asbury Park Comic Con) and then Illuxcon in September, where my work will be displayed on Friday and Saturday night.
Thanks for all the support for Monster Monday as well as my other illustrations.
A Tarasque is a dragon of the swamps. It does not resemble the common image of what a dragon usually is. It spends it's time on the ground, hiding in large bodies of muddy water. Camouflage is the technique the creature uses in order to hide it's massive body from armies that could take it down. It prefers to snap out of the water, grabbing it's pretty then drags it into the water to both drown and eat. The large club at the end of it's tail is it's defense from being attacked from behind and it's horns can pierce the best armor. Legend tells of the Tarasque slicing a knight in half with the power of it's jaws.
In Orbis, only one Tarasque remains in the bogs of the North. All others have been killed and kingdoms displays the horns and shells as relics of battle. That last Tarasque has not been seen in hundreds of years. Lots of people believe that none are left, but few believe that the harsh stench of the bogs is the Tarasque breath and don't venture into the swamps.
During Goblin Week I drew a mining goblin repelling in a crystal cavern. It was my favorite drawing I created that week and decided to take it to a finished piece and documented the creation of the illustration while working.
The theme I added to Goblin Week was to create a mining company. In the beginning it's all little drawings of poses and ideas. It helps to layout the shapes before deciding details. Sketchbooks aren't meant to be pretty so I scribble down any idea that comes to mind even if it doesn't end up working because it might be useful later on. After sketching the repelling idea on the left page, I took the idea and scaled it up to a larger sketch. Then I took that sketch and cleaned up the idea on a piece of bristol to prepare to ink.
Having a solid drawing makes inking much easier. I don't leave anything blank to 'fix later'. It always ends with taking more time to fix later then just doing it right the first time. I get out my lining brush and ink bottle and get to work. After doing the first ink pass, I let it dry then tackle detailing. When the piece is completely dry, I scan it and clean up any mistakes or random ink blobs to prepare it for digital flats.
The cleaned up ink drawing becomes the lines for the digital piece. In photoshop the base colors are laid down on multiple layers, this is the time I experiment with different palettes. I want to nail down the palette before I end up adding shadows and highlights. But that doesn't always happen so I adjust some colors. For this piece, the character came together easily but the rocks and crystals had a lot of experimenting.
The final step in to add the highlights and shadows. Those are also done on their own layers in a new folder. Labeling layers and folders makes it much easier to keep track of things for me. After adding shadows, the highlights come next. Since the back of the crystals are black, I added a strong purplish white highlight to add punch.
I'm still learning how to use photoshop more efficiently and am enjoying learning to use photoshop as a medium. Though I am experimenting with new ways to apply watercolor in a flat manner similar to my digital work. More pieces are in the work.
After a week of drawing goblins, it's time to get back into personal projects for the upcoming convention season. This drawing of a Starken is going to be included in a book I'm creating of wizards in the world of Orbis. I plan it to showcase the different races and magic that exist in Orbis. So far I have 6 drawings inked and I have to color them. This book is going to be in color unlike other zines or comics I've made in the past.
Starken have already had a post about them, but I'll add some new information. This is Master Lo'grom, he is considered an oracle [able to see the future in the smoke of herbs]. The herbs are burned in a specially made caldron created by Starken metal crafters. There's a port on the side of the caldron that a pipe can be attached to breath in the smoke as well as increase the fire. The Oracle often has an assistant to aid by collecting herbs and preparing the cauldron for predictions. It's considered a high honor to have a personal prediction by a Starken Oracle.
It's the last day of Goblin Week and I've finished this drawing in the last hour. Goblin Week is a great challenge in world building a goblin society. I didn't let myself to create concepts until Goblin Week started, making each a day a new problem to solve in drawing and writing. It really helped me just throw down any ideas I had in my sketchbook and weed out the best. There are many pages of sketches (maybe I'll do a post of Goblin Week Concepts).
For the last image of The Goblin Mining Company is a sad, beat up Goblin taking a break. Working in the mines is not always an enjoyable time, its hard labor and it doesn't always pay off in finding crystals. Goblins can get defeated when weeks or months go by with out physically finding anything. And this Goblin is wishing to be at home with a bowl of rat stew in his favorite arm chair.
The Goblin Mining Company owns many caves in a wide area of Orbis. Not all caves are active at the same time. To protect the cave from being mined before the company has a chance to, goblin guards are set up at the locations to protect the property. A watch tower is constructed at the mouth of the cave as well as a wooden gate; Two guards at the gate and three in the watch tower. The goblins that work at the sites are sword for hires, meaning they are trained in combat but don't owe allegiance to a person of power. The company pays the hires as well as provides them with food and a place to live with in the watch tower. Most of the time, there isn't anyone trying to enter the cave with out permission from the company. But there have been times of slaying thieves and competitor companies spies.
I was busy today starting a new job and cooked dinner poorly. But drawing goblins is a way to improve a negative mood.
Being alone is the caves can be a scary place. Goblins carry a brass lamp with a stand to light the tunnels in travel then be stuck into the ground to light their work area. Some goblins get superstitious about leaving their lamps behind, telling that the cave will seek its revenge with out the protection of the candle (which are supposedly enchanted by wizards). Believing in the superstition makes sense due to many goblins hurting themselves by hurting themselves and being found dead later on. So having the lantern keeps 'protect' by lighting their way out at the end of a work day. And no goblin wants to be left behind at the end of the day.
With great wealth being carted out of the caves, some goblins want to get the riches with out having to do the labor. Thieves are fairly common sneaking around in the darkness of the caves. Though many of them don't have the knowledge or skill to navigate the system of tunnels. Many fall into trenches far away from where the miners are working and never make it out. A few have actually been able to steal a few crystals to pawn to jewelers. Other thieves have tried to force a cart worker to hand over the goods, but then they suffer the burden of pushing the heavy weight to the mouth of the cave. Most of the time, each goblin takes a few and runs, and get caught by the BugBear guards to hand over the stollen crystals.
Goblin Week continues with a Goblin Climber to add to the Goblin Mining Company.
Some times mining crystals takes Goblins' to scale down water eroded holes to collect crystals. Often a Goblin will use rope and a harness to get down to the bottom with out breaking their necks. Though ropes have snapped in the past and goblins end up stuck at the bottom of the trench with no way out. Another rope line is scaled down to the goblin with a bucket to place the crystals in and raised continuously raised and lowered. A standard axe is used to remove the crystals in large junks and separated at the surface or brought out of the cave to be removed by a jeweler.
Next Goblin for the Goblin Mining Company is a crystal collector. Crystal collectors wander around the caves recently minded to pick up crystals to be transported to the carts to be brought out of the caves. These Goblins carry small pick axes to gently remove the crystals from the rocks and try to keep the crystals in the quality state. They place the crystals in their packs and walk back to the rails, where the carts are ready to transport the crystals out of the cave to the jewelers.
I started to flat the piece out in photoshop and have to make some adjustments to some of the colors, then render it. I plan on coloring all the pieces for Goblin Week, it just may not be possible with the other work I need to get done.
Today is the first day of Goblin Week on Tumblr and Twitter. Started last year by comic artist Evan Dahm (Rice-boy.com) as a week to world build using goblins. The theme that links all of the goblins I'm going to draw is crystal mining.
The first goblin in the series is a basic miner. They are the ones chipping away at the cave walls to harvest the crystals. Crystals are the main source of trade income for goblins. They trade with other races since the crystals hold magical properties and are located in only a few known places, which happen to be mined by either goblins or dwarves. The goblins have pale skin since they spend a lot of time in the darkness. The hard hats and goggles are used to help protect their heads and eyes from falling rocks. Many goblins have been knocked out and even killed by falling rock. Sometimes they use their scarf to cover their mouth from dust so they don't breath it in. The clothing they wear is different to each goblin, though many prefer to wear overalls. Though goblins often get a bad reputation for being wild and crazy, many people consider the mining goblins to be hard working and easy to trade with.
This week is a rock elemental from Orbis, my fictional world I'm currently building. Elementals of all types can vary in looks. Some may be giant and others can be very small. They are born of the element and land around them. Natural magic is the only way of creating elementals, most wizards have a difficult time conjuring elementals. Natural magic from the land can create an elemental with out help from a Wizard. Those tend to be avatars and are large. (The Dwarves of the Iron Halls believe that Dwarves were crafted from stone by a rock avatar.) Most avatars are peaceful and are the guardian of the land they in habit.
Elementals crafted by Wizards are often used as helpers or guards. Some leaders use elementals as guards because of their size and stature, often being feared since elementals are uncommon. Some Wizards use Elementals as guides to find new ingredients for potions because of their vast knowledge of nature.
A few days ago I was struggling with ideas for new illustrations. I couldn't come up with a good composition for a piece and had to take a break. I pulled out some toned paper and just started drawing. I haven't drawn a troll in a while, not even in my sketchbook. I let my hand guide the drawing instead of over thinking of what I was doing. Over thinking tends to be a killer and creates doubt before pencil even hits paper. This drawing really helped crush the art block I was having. And now I have 4 illustrations in the works all at different stages.
For my last illustration for my undergrad. I decided to take an idea I've had in my sketch book since March to a final piece. Originally I was going to do an illustration with a horse, but I need to work on my horse anatomy before I tackle an illustration like that.
This piece went through many stages of edits. I create 4 completed drawings, inked 2 of them, and ended up having to redraw and ink it again. Each time there was improvement on the illustration, now I have 5 versions of one idea. Figuring out the colors for this one was also a challenge because I wanted it to be colorful without using every crayon in the box. Luckily with help from Prof. Gash, it came together. I'm very pleased with how it turned out and is the opener of my portfolio.
As I said before this was the last illustration I created for my undergrad and it feels good to end on an illustration like this one. It's crazy to think of all the improvements I've made over the past 4 and a half years of college. I remember taking my first illustration course creating my first illustration. I now have a process that works for my thinking and my style has really developed since my freshman year. It's funny because I can see from my old drawings that it was a crude version of how I draw now. I was lucky to have some great professors who really took me under their wing to spend extra time to help me take my work to the next level. Now it's time to start sending out my portfolio and postcards. As well as continue my personal projects for the up coming convention season. Looking forward to what 2014's has to offer.
First Monster Monday of the new year.
I haven't drawn a Gnoll is maybe 2 years. It's not a creature I often think about, but I was browsing through the Dungeons and Dragons Monster Manual 4.0 edition and thought it was time to draw a Gnoll again. Instead of being more hyena like I made it look more wolfish, though a hyena crest was added to the gnoll's back. Added some armor and gave the gnoll a dagger, gnolls tend to not have the best armor and tools since weapon smithing isn't an important part of their life.
That's it for Monster Monday. This week I will post the last illustration I made for my undergrad.
Today is J.R.R Tolkien's birthday and in his honor I made a toned paper drawing of Fingolfin from the Silmarillion. Fingolfin faced off with Morgoth and was the second high king of the Noldor. Tolkien's books have been a huge influence on my childhood and now my adulthood.
As a kid, I always wondered who J.R.R Tolkien was because he was often mentioned with Narnia creator C.S. Lewis. In sixth grade, my mom purchased me a copy of The Fellowship of the Ring. I carried it to school everyday and it took me all year to read the book (that was clearly above my reading level). Also in sixth grade I did a report on J.R.R Tolkien for my English class. The next year in my English class I did a book report of The Hobbit. I created an illuminated book of the scenes and characters of the book (which ended up inspiring my thesis). In High school, I continued to read Tolkien's works of the Last Tales and other texts. Many of the characters and creatures were drawn in my sketch book while sitting in class.
In college, Tolkien no doubt was inspired my work. I focussed on character design and fantasy illustration. I did an independent study of watercolors for the Hobbit. And created two digital illustrations in another independent study for my final semester. And I am still continuing to sketch new illustrations for Middle Earth. It's hard for me to think of what direction my work and life would be like with out reading Tolkien.